“Would you like to meet a corporate legend?”
“Does he bite?”
“Not on Saturdays!”

Meet Henrik Vanger. An old business magnate who’s been out of the picture for over two decades and who is obsessed with the disappearance of his beloved niece. It’s been decades and the investigations have turned up zilch. Adding to his misery is a yearly gift on his birthday, just like his Harriet used to give him. Someone seems to be taunting him through the gifts.

Harriet Vanger seemed to have dissolved into thin air, and Henrik Vanger’s years of torment had begun.

“An unloved girl with an odd behavior. And she always got revenge! In short, she was anything but easy to handle.”

Meet Lisbeth Salander. An oddity. A cold and mentally challenged young girl who digs up dirt on people for a living. She has a thing for leather jackets (now I do too) and she does some major butt kicking.

“It would be deplorable if the special interests had the power to silence those voices in the media that they find uncomfortable.”

Meet Mikael “Kalle” Blomkvist. An honest financial investigative reporter who’s just been charged and convicted with Libel and faces severe fines and a short jail term, his career looking bleak, if not over.

Spurred on by Mikael’s bad run in with the law, Henrik decides to look into his credentials and sets things in motion by hiring Lisbeth to dig up dirt on him. Satisfied with what turns up, Henrik decides to hire Blomkvist to look into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger.
Henrik goads him in a legal contract for a year with the offerings Blomkvist wants most.

“Vanger was a practised manipulator—how else had he become one of Sweden’s leading industrialists”

What starts as a simple formality of looking into the past with no hopes or expectations of finding anything, soon turns up something in form of pictures.

“In her face can be read…what? Sorrow, shock, fury? Harriet lowers her eyes. Harriet is gone.”

What looks like a simple disappearance, soon turns into something much more sinister. With Blomkvist turning up shreds of evidence after evidence, he happens upon Lis and is required to join forces with her.

"Good morning, Fröken Salander," he greeted her cheerfully. "It was a late night, I see. Can I come in?"

Let the games begin!!

This book that comes off across as an investigation into a simple case of disappearance is anything but that. The author creates a very brilliant cover for what is really at the heart of this book and what really is at the heart of this book, is not a pretty picture!!
It has some really good dialogue that actually show us the ugly image in the mirror that we so conveniently turn a blind eye to.

“Because it’s so easy,” he said. “Women disappear all the time. Nobody misses them"

The characters are brilliantly shaped and especially that of Froken Salander. She is the most badass girl I have ever read and the best part is how her character curve builds up all through the book and right until the very last sentence. The author keeps her true to her initial image even as he builds her up.
"She wanted to hear him say that he liked her for who she was. That she was someone special in his world and in his life. She wanted him to give her some gesture of love, not just of friendship and companionship."
"What a pathetic fool you are, Salander" she said out loud to herself.

As the book proceeds, there are shocking discoveries made and it becomes apparent that Kalle Blomkvist is clearly out of his depth.
“You are a very ordinary little person, Mikael. You would not be able to understand the godlike feeling of having absolute control over someone’s life and death.”

Blomkvist faced certain death if not for the Kickass leather jacket clad tattoo wearing delinquent that is Lis.
“If I’d waited for the police, you wouldn’t have survived. I wasn’t going to let that motherfucker kill you.”

Now to be honest, I always knew where the book was headed and I clearly saw the culprits since after the first quarter of the book. It did manage to pull a small twist on me but after that again I knew what was coming. The suspense actually did not work for me. But other than that I loved how this book was written. A lot of things were dumbed down and explain for better understanding of the readers. Since it is a translation I cannot really say but I would venture that the prose was good too since the translation came of brilliantly.

The book never managed to lose steam and is very well paced. It never drags and it does a great job telling a story that is so close to the reality. Also it brings all the issues to a close and does not leave the reader hanging.

I completely loved this book and could not put it down despite trying several times and will soon be picking up the second installment bcz I would love to read more of Salander, who is “an information junkie with a delinquent child’s take on morals and ethics.”

However, despite everything the book throws at you and the ugly picture that it paints, I felt a certain thing in my heart and I was mighty glad when the beloved Lis put it in memorable words. It is my personal opinion that I share with Lis and stand by it.

“Bitch,” she said.
“Who?”
“Harriet Fucking Vanger.” Well, you said it, girl. You said it!

In the end, I would like to dedicate this review to my friend Sal, who was visibly excited about me reading this book and practically couldn’t wait for me to finish it and has been goading me into picking up the next book. I will get to it very soon Sal, I promise.